English Vocabulary: The Basics

Michael McCarthy is Emeritus Professor of Applied Linguistics, University of Nottingham, and Adjunct Professor of Applied Linguistics, University of Limerick. He has (co-)authored and edited 58 books and was co-founder (with Ronald Carter) of the CANCODE spoken English corpus. He has lectured in 46 countries and has been involved in language teaching and applied linguistics for 57 years.

• CONTENTSINTRODUCTION TO THE READER1 A WORD OR TWO ABOUT WORDS WHAT DO WE MEAN BY ‘VOCABULARY’?THE ‘ENGLISH’ IN ENGLISH VOCABULARYAT LEAST WE KNOW WHAT WORDS ARE … DON’T WE?SPACED OUTEYES AND EARSIT JUST FEELS RIGHTI SEE WHAT YOU MEANMORPHEMESTAKING WORDS TO PIECESGRAMMAR AND LEXISWORDS STICK TOGETHERCOMPOUNDSMULTI-WORD UNITSIDIOMSCOLLOCATIONRECIPES FOR NEW WORDSWORDS COME AND GONOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUNHALF AND HALFKEEP IT SHORTLENDING AND BORROWINGCORPORA: LETTING THE DATA SPEAKUSING A CORPUSCORPUS EXAMPLE (1): HARD-WORKING WORDSCORPUS EXAMPLE (2): SPEAKING VERSUS WRITINGSUMMING UPFURTHER READING2 WHERE DO ENGLISH WORDS COME FROM?THE DIM AND DISTANT PASTTHE BEGINNING OF ENGLISHANGLO-SAXONSBEGINNING TO LOOK FAMILIAR: CHRONICLES AND MONSTERSMORE INCOMERSVIKINGSA BIG CHANGE: THE NORMANS ARRIVEPUTTING IT IN BLACK AND WHITETELLING TALESPIERS PLOWMANINTO THE MODERN ERALANGUAGE ABOUT LANGUAGEAN EXPANDING VOCABULARYCIRCLING THE WORLDA SETTLED LANGUAGESPELLING IT OUTNEW WORLDS, NEW CULTURESNEW TECHNOLOGIES, NEW ENGLISHESFURTHER READING3 WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?FROM FORM TO MEANINGWORDING THE WORLDMAKING SENSE OF THE LEXICONSAME OR DIFFERENT?SYNONYMYLOOKS THE SAME, SOUNDS THE SAME BUT …SOMETHING DIFFERENTCLASSIFYING THE WORLDTHE UPSIDE-DOWN TREESCIENTIFICALLY SPEAKINGFUZZY BORDERS AND STEREOTYPESAN ARM AND A LEG: PARTS AND WHOLESMAKING SENSE IN THE REAL WORLDTAKING MEANING TO PIECESPLUSES AND MINUSES TO EVERYTHINGWORDS, THE MIND AND THE WORLDPRAGMATICS: WHAT DO YOU MEAN?FURTHER READING4 BEATING ABOUT THE BUSH: FIGURATIVE MEANINGJUST IMAGINEATOMS OR MOLECULES?BITE-SIZED CHUNKSROOM FOR MANOUEVREAS CLEAR AS MUD: IDIOMSDO YOU SEE WHAT I MEAN?IN A NUTSHELLIDIOM-PRONELOOK AT IT THIS WAYMETAPHORSPROVERBS AND METAPHORSTROPES GALOREHERE COMES THE ARMY: METONYMYNO EXAGGERATION: HYPERBOLEA NOT UNINTERESTING TROPE: UNDERSTATEMENTEUPHEMISMSSUMMARYFURTHER READING5 BEAR THIS IN MIND: THE MENTAL LEXICONA REMARKABLE ACHIEVEMENTHOW DID IT ALL GET THERE? ACQUIRING VOCABULARYDESIGNING A HUMANONE WORD AT A TIMETELEGRAMS FROM A CHILDMORE THAN ONE WAY OF SAYING THINGSSPELL IT OUTWHERE ARE ALL THOSE WORDS?MIND AND BRAIN: THE MENTAL LEXICONHOW DOES IT WORK?FASTER THAN YOU CAN SAY JACK ROBINSONWHAT COMES INTO YOUR HEAD?JUST A SLIP OF THE TONGUE?IN TWO MINDS AGAINCONCLUSIONFURTHER READING6 VOCABULARY IN ACTIONWORDS OUT THERELANGUAGE SNAPSHOTSHARD WORDSNOT IN FRONT OF THE CHILDRENLETTING THE MACHINE DECIDE: CORPORAQUIZZING THE DATAEXCHANGING A FEW WORDSLET’S NOT GO INTO DETAILSO, CONSEQUENTLY …WINDOWS ON CULTUREWORDS ON THE MOVENAUGHTY BUT NICEA NOTICEABLE UPTICKSHOWING YOUR AGEMAPPING ENGLISH VOCABULARYVARIETIESDIFFERENT VOICES: DIALECTS AND SOCIOLECTSSPECIAL VOCABULARIESWORDS AND THE IMAGINATIONFLOUTING CONVENTIONSOLD WORDS, NEW MEANINGSFOOD FOR THOUGHTHAVING A LAUGHEDUCATION AND LEARNINGGROWING UP WITH WORDSSECOND LANGUAGE VOCABULARYTHE END OF THE BEGINNINGFURTHER READINGGLOSSARY OF KEY TERMSREFERENCESINDEX

This is a book for all of us who wonder where words in English come from, how they relate to each other, what patterns they occur in, how we store them in our minds, and what choices we make when we use words and why. This highly readable volume draws on multiple sources including many years of Michael McCarthy’s excellent scholarship, corpus evidence, examples from varieties of English and a keen interest in language and language learning.Averil Coxhead, Professor in Applied Linguistics, Victoria University of Wellington